Month: December 1998

At 6pm On December 18th, 1998 I attended the 1998 Winter Commencement Ceremonies presented by The University of North Carolina at Greensboro at the Greensboro Convention Center in Greensboro, NC.

Received my BFA in Design from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro!

Tyler Dockery attended UNC-G, receiving his BFA in Design in 1998

Today I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Design with a specialization in Graphic Design and Mutlimedia. Hooray!

The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree is the highest undergraduate degree that you can receive in the arts, with the Bachelor of Arts as a lesser degree requiring no foreign language or upper-tier courses. In short:

How Fine Arts Degrees Stack Up

Here is the breakdown of visual arts to liberal arts credits that you will encounter in a BFA or BA program:

Bachelor of Fine Arts: A BFA requires that approximately two thirds of the course work focus on the creation and study of visual arts, and one third of the course work focus on liberal arts (history, literature, psychology, etc.).

Bachelor of Arts: For a BA, the course work ratios are flipped, with a two thirds focus on liberal arts and one third focus on visual arts.

These ratios hold true across all establishments of higher learning. The type of degree, not the institution, determines the amount of visual arts to liberal arts you will study.

I chose to take the BFA degree track in design because I want to teach graphic design at the collegiate or university level. To do this, I would have to really get into the field and get to know all facets of design. The BFA program at UNC-G ( http://www.uncg.edu will open in another window) has a focus on both the traditional design methodologies such as drawing, sculpture, color theory, painting, etc., coupled with an emphasis on software and multimedia design. This dual-emphasis on the old and the new will really give me a boost in the workplace (hoping).

Software I learned in school

Adobe Photoshop 3.0

Adobe Illustrator 2.0

Adobe Premiere

Adobe Pagemaker

Quark XPress

Hypercard

Supercard

Aldus Freehand 5.0

Macromedia Flash 2.0

Macromedia Director

Some HTML

Where did you go to school, and what did you learn? Let me know in the comments area!